COLOUR: The art and science of illuminated manuscripts

Some of the finest illuminated manuscripts in the world - treasures combining gold and precious pigments ? will go on display today in celebration of the Fitzwilliam Museum's bicentenary. Leading artists of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance did not think of art and science as opposing disciplines. Stella Panayotova The majority of the exhibits are from the Museum's own rich collections, and those from the founding bequest of Viscount Fitzwilliam in 1816 can never leave the building and can only be seen at the Museum. For the first time, the secrets of master illuminators and the sketches hidden beneath the paintings will be revealed in a major exhibition presenting new art historical and scientific research. Spanning the 8th to the 17th centuries, the 150 manuscripts and fragments in COLOUR: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts guide us on a journey through time, stopping at leading artistic centres of medieval and Renaissance Europe. Exhibits highlight the incredible diversity of the Fitzwilliam's collection: including local treasures, such as the Macclesfield Psalter made in East Anglia c.1330-1340, a leaf with a self-portrait made by the Oxford illuminator William de Brailes c.1230-1250, and a medieval encyclopaedia made in Paris c.1414 for the Duke of Savoy. Four years of cutting-edge scientific analysis and discoveries made at the Fitzwilliam have traced the creative process from the illuminators? original ideas through their choice of pigments and painting techniques to the completed masterpieces.